The present invention relates to the art of capturing images. More particularly, the present invention relates to digital stereo camera capturing stereoscopic images.
Stereo (or 3-dimensional (“3D”)) imaging involves capturing two images—a “left image” and a “right image”—of a scene, the images captured from two different viewpoints. Typically, the two viewpoints are horizontally displaced from each other. The horizontal displacement is typically about 65 mm, an average distance between a person's eyes. When the left image is viewed by the left eye and the right image by the right eye a 3D image is presented to the person's brain. In this document, the term “camera” is used to designate apparatus for capturing still images as well as moving, or video, images.
Various methods have been used to capture the stereo images. For instance, a non-stereo camera can be used to capture a scene in stereo by capturing the scene using two sequential exposures, the exposures being made from two different viewpoints. More conveniently, a stereo camera may be used. A stereo camera usually has two lens systems—a left lens system and a right lens system—to capture a 3D image. A left image is captured by a first film and a right image by a second film.
For digital stereo cameras, two sensor arrays are used—a first sensor arrays to capture the left image and a second sensor arrays to capture the right image. However, the use of two sensor arrays decreases reliability while increasing the cost and the weight of the digital stereo camera. There is a need for a digital stereo camera capable of taking stereo images using only one sensor array.